_Zerah._ Thee! _Ador._ I stood the nearest to the throne In hierarchical degree, What time the Voice said _Go_! And whether I was moved alone By the storm-pathos of the tone Which swept through heaven the alien name of _woe_, Or whether the subtle glory broke Through my strong and shielding wings, Bearing to my finite essence Incapacious of their presence, Infinite imaginings, None knoweth save the Throned who spoke; But I who at creation stood upright And heard the God-breath move Shaping the words that lightened, "Be there light, Nor trembled but with love, Now fell down shudderingly, My face upon the pavement whence I had towered, As if in mine immortal overpowered By God's eternity. _Zerah._ Let me wait!--let me wait!-- _Ador._ Nay, gaze not backward through the gate! God fills our heaven with God's own solitude Till all the pavements glow: His Godhead being no more subdued, By itself, to glories low Which seraphs can sustain. What if thou, in gazing so, Shouldst behold but only one Attribute, the veil undone-- Even that to which we dare to press Nearest, for its gentleness-- Ay, his love! How the deep ecstatic pain Thy being's strength would capture! Without language for the rapture, Without music strong to come And set the adoration free, For ever, ever, wouldst thou be Amid the general chorus dumb, God-stricken to seraphic agony. Or, brother, what if on thine eyes In vision bare should rise The life-fount whence his hand did gather With solitary force Our immortalities! Straightway how thine own would wither, Falter like a human breath, And shrink into a point like death, By gazing on its source!-- My words have imaged dread Meekly hast thou bent thine head, And dropt thy wings in languishment: Overclouding foot and face, As if God's throne were eminent Before thee, in the place. Yet not--not so, O loving spirit and meek, dost thou fulfil The supreme Will. Not for obeisance but obedience, Give motion to thy wings! Depart from hence! The voice said "Go!" _Zerah._ Beloved, I depart, His will is as a spirit within my spirit, A portion of the being I inherit. His will is mine obedience. I resemble A flame all undefilèd though it tremble; I go and tremble. Love me, O beloved! O thou, who stronger art, And standest ever near the Infinite, Pale with the light of Light, Love me, beloved! me, more newly made, More feeble, more afraid; And let me hear with mine thy pinions moved, As close and gentle as the loving are, That love being near, heaven may not seem so far.